Category Archives: LEGO News Around The Web

It’s not often that I see a LEGO creation and think to myself “this is art.” But Lukasz Wiktorowicz‘s most recent build, “the Edge” certainly is art. Using both classic architecture and surrealist imagery, Lukasz created an absolutely stunning build. The proportions on this thing are spot on and the details are ridiculously, well, detailed. But what really pushes this build over the top is Lukasz’s out-of-the-box building techniques.

Normally I’m a stickler for lining up LEGO bricks perfectly (90 or 180 degree angles only, people!). A little crease from a cattywampus brick in an otherwise smooth wall is a downright sin in my book. But Lukasz purposefully stacked the bricks in his four pillars all askew and the resulting texture is fantastic! Another creative feature of this build is the base. When I accumulate a boxful of seemingly useless bricks, I shove them to the back of my shelf and forget about them. Instead of doing the same, Lukasz used those ball socket bricks to create an unconventional base for his build that makes the whole thing look like it is floating. Well done all around.

In yet another repudiation of the idea that LEGO pieces are only good for the purpose originally intended by their designers, alego alego has built a yellow thatched roof made entirely of LEGO bananas. And the cabin itself is built almost completely from brown Technic connectors. The base of this treehouse is also quite lovely, with a stone pathway, well, and lovely little bushes.

My only critique is that a lovely LEGO creation like this feels a little underpopulated without some characters to enjoy the scenery.

While it’s doubtful any builder will ever challenge the sheer scale of Alice Finch’s LEGO Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling’s magical series of books continues to inspire LEGO builders. At nearly seven and a half feet long, Martin Harris and his son have built a massive minifig-scale quidditch pitch that gives Alice a run for her money. The pitch features all the colorful stands shown in the second movie, and there’s plenty of action both inside and outside the structure.

Each end of the pitch features a trio of goals.

Naturally, beaters are aloft to protect Harry from bludgers as he tries to catch the golden snitch.

While my favorite lifeform from the age of the dinosaurs (and before) is the trilobite, I also have a soft spot for the hard-shelled ammonite. Leonid An has built a scientifically accurate, albeit fictional, ammonite that he’s dubbed Ammonoidea fictum. The Bionicle pieces make an excellent shell, and I love the big yellow eye glaring from behind a mouthful of tentacles.

Sadly, ammonites died out around the same time as the dinosaurs, survived by the similar (but only distantly related) nautilus. If you like this LEGO ammonite, check out the white nautilus we featured here back in 2009.

It is no secret that Djordje is one of the best character builders, and he usually manages to inject incredible personality to his builds. This time, he managed to capture the essence of a mad scientist with Doctor Karnakogg:

First of all, the cartoonish proportions are spot on, and you can see that this build is not really heavy on pieces — but those pieces are used in a really creative way, making it all the more impressive. What really gets me is the personality of this build, expressing that perhaps a mad scientist can be both scary and charming.

For my latest creation I wanted to use the unique canopies from the UCS Slave I set. They formed a nice bubble so I decided to build a futuristic bubble boat. The initial photos taken against a standard poster board backdrop didn’t do the model justice, so I decided to photograph using real water dyed with food coloring.

Every so often you come across a model which makes you sit up straight and PAY ATTENTION. This unusual mech from tankm does exactly that. The combination of atypical shaping, the double cockpit, and the in-your-face color scheme creates immediate standout from the crowd of regular LEGO mechs which appear on a regular basis. However, this model isn’t all just bluster and noise, there are also some great building details which reward a closer inspection.

I’m not sure if this is a walker or a flyer, or some sort of chimeric combination of the two — the rear view suggests this bad boy can take to the air if it needs to. All I really know is this thing looks like a two-headed death pigeon decked out for a Blacktron parade. I like it.

Michał Kaźmierczak has posted this lovely security base, orbiting the sun in the Kuiper Belt. The base has tucked itself into one of the many, many objects in the belt, which I imagine is hugely helpful, given the amount of raw materials one could find there. The presentation is just lovely. I particularly like the thought and care given to how to build the security base as if it’s part of the rock itself, which gives the whole build a very otherworldly feel.

…but these Star Wars figures just may be the coolest ones around. We covered Omar Ovalle‘s Endor Trooper last month, but Omar’s been busy since then converting lots of LEGO Technic figures into awesome Star Wars characters. The Technic figures, which LEGO produced from the late 80s to the early 2000s, are considerably larger than traditional minifigures and have a lot more poseability. The size also allows more accurate scaling with small characters, like Yoda and the Jawas, who both look quite good as minifigures next to the Technic figs. Boba Fett definitely takes the cake for the best looking figure though, as he blasts his way out of the Sarlacc pit.

Kołobrzeg Lighthouse is located in Kołobrzeg on the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea. Piotr Machalski has build a very nice rendition of this landmark in LEGO, capturing its curvaceous architecture in brick form. The real lighthouse is is a red brick cylindrical tower that emits a light that can been seen nearly 30km away. There are lots of techniques for creating curves from LEGO, many of which hail from builders who favour castle-themed creations, but it’s always nice to see similar techniques used for other types of building. The main central portion uses a mix of round and regular bricks but the outer wall is all about the power of bending LEGO.

This lighthouse we blogged previously uses a similar technique as the main tower in Piotr’s build.